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In this article, I make a case for student blogs as a tool that can support and extend students’ mathematics proficiency through the Standards for Mathematical Practice.

Teachers who use math journals can easily convert that process to a digital one through blogging.

The act of blogging allows for: students to make their thinking visible students and teachers to give one another feedback students and teachers to keep a record of student progress with mathematics What follows is a definition of the eight Standards for Mathematical Practice and a description of how blogging can enhance and strengthen students’ use of these practices:   Teachers who use math journals can easily convert that process to a digital one through blogging.

A few weeks ago, Mrs. Gross, Mr. Olsen and their students explored how they might pair Times content with basic computer coding to practice Common Core skills. This week they show how the news and the standards can be jumping-off points for exploring video design and gaming. Here are three recent STEM-related articles, related writing prompts, and links to the student projects that resulted–from an undersea-themed game to pop-up analyses of viral videos to interactive biographies of inspiring innovators.

Successful principals help teachers improve their individual practice, whether they are new or veteran.

hese principals gauge what their teachers need and arrange for the appropriate support. They assign mentor teachers; they send in instructional coaches or more-accomplished teachers to teach model lessons; they or their delegates observe instruction frequently and offer suggestions; and they meet with teachers regularly to look at student data, discuss relevant research, and explore options for their classrooms.

Successful principals work with groups of teachers to find patterns of instruction within grade levels and departments.

What is informational text? Common Core uses “informational text” as another term for “nonfiction text.”  This category includes historical, scientific, and technical texts that provide students with factual information about the world. Typically, they employ structures such as cause and effect, compare and contrast, and problem and solution. They also contain text features like headlines and boldface vocabulary words.  Because of their narrative structures, biographies and autobiographies do not look like other nonfiction texts. In fact, they are often classified as literary nonfiction. But the Common Core considers them to be informational text as well.  Another category of informational texts includes directions, forms, and information contained in charts, graphs, maps, and digital resources. Simply put, if students are reading it for the information it contains, it’s informational text. 

Putting It Into Practice  With an understanding of what the standards are calling for, it’s time to start thinking about what instruction in informational text could look like in your classroom. Here are a few ideas.

. The phrase “academic and domain-specific vocabulary,” which appears several times, refers to words readers often encounter in textbooks across all subject areas.